Families warned to book Easter staycations now or risk missing out – as prices are already rocketing for school hols
FAMILIES wanting an Easter holiday in 2021 are being warned to book now - as the cheap deals aren't likely to be found next year.
While many are likely to be waiting for the January sales, these are unlikely to happen this time around.
National Caravan Council's (NCC) Louise Wood explained many are offering bigger bargains now, as they struggle to survive the winter season.
She told Sun Online Travel: "There are bookings for Easter now - you need to look now because I don't think there is going to be the usual January offers you are going to get.
"They won't offer them because parks are fairly confident that they will get the bookings."
Holiday parks and resorts faced a summer booking boom this year, despite the lockdowns and coronavirus, due to the travel bans to popular overseas locations such as Spain and Greece.
This meant many had a record-breaking year for bookings while others sold out, and are already experiencing 2021 bookings.
Camping website Pitchup.com has had 1,400 bookings for next summer - an increase of 500 per cent - while Canopy and Stars who offer glamping holidays have more bookings for August 2021 than they did for this August.
Ms Wood continued: "Deals such as 'book now for Easter and we will give you £10pp' will be out there, but there won't be so many of those offers any more."
"The pressure points next year are going to be Easter, the May bank holidays and the summer school holidays.
"If you can travel outside of that time you will have much more choice and to pay less."
Alistair Handyside, who owns three three cottages in south Devon, that it is "highly likely" there will be a shortage of bookings for next summer as foreign travel remains a worry for many families.
Charles Millward, the owner of Staycation Holidays, told : “People should be worried about finding availability next year, a lot of dates are already taken because they will have been moved from this year - one of our properties only has three weekends free next year from March til September.
"In general our properties will increase in price next year by 20 per cent to recoup the cost owners lost during the lockdown. One property we're booking for next year has gone up by 50 per cent."
Working farms even resorted to converting their land and renting it out as a campsite due to the surge in demand.
This is likely to result in a jump in price too, meaning now is the time to start thinking of next year's holiday.
Thankfully, many resorts and booking websites have already launched 2021 holidays - Haven launched theirs last month, while an overseas holiday with TUI is now available up until summer 2022.
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PC Agency's Paul Charles is optimistic for next year, claiming countries will have learnt how to handle the virus by then and will be able to welcome international visitors once again.
He told Sun Online Travel: "I think many destinations will be in great shape by summer 2021 to host travellers, so rather than not book anything I’d advise people to book holidays for summer 2021.
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"I think countries will have learnt a lot of lessons by then, if there is not a vaccine then they will have learnt lessons on how to keep cases down."
Tour operators are flogging bargain deals to Spain for next summer to try and recoup profits lost this year.